The Happiest Day

One day after the lesson in the slum, a girl, Nanda, told me about how great the trip to Kidzania was. Kidzania is themed as a child-sized replica of a real city, including buildings, shops and theaters, as well as vehicles and pedestrian moving along its streets. In this city, children aged 2 through 14 could join and experience different kinds of profession from doctor, pilot, construction worker, archeologist, and many more. The trip was a sponsored one from the organization.

“Really, was it great? I heard about it a lot, but never been there. Where is it, it’s inside a mall, right?”, I asked them.

“Umm.. well, you just take the bus, then you just go straaaaaaiiiight…”, said Arif.

“Yeah, and you stop at… umm.. well there were a lot of taxis in front of there”, said Nanda.

“Oh, okay. So you take the bus, go straight, and just stop at the place where there are a lot of taxis, right?”, I said, smiling, trying not to laugh.

“Yep!”, Nanda confirmed affirmatively.

“Yeah.. it was reeeaaally huge. And there were a lot of things there. Fire station, hospital…”, said Arif.

“This kid kept following me everywhere,” said Nanda, annoyed, pointing at Arif, who grinned shyly. I imagined he felt dumbfounded by the huge “majestic” room that he had to follow this tall girl around.

“Do you still have the money?”, ask Kiki to Arif.

“Yea, a million”, he answered.

“What money?”, I asked them.

“You got money, from the KTM”, Arif said. Well, he meant ATM. Apparently there’s some kind of Kidzania currency that they get as their ‘wage’ after doing a job for particular profession. The money could be used to buy an item in there.

“Well, my money is finished. Can you give me some?”, Kiki asked.

“Yea, okay”, said Arif.

Suddenly, as if he forgot a very important detail, Arif stood up and pointed out his finger and shouted “It had air con!!”

The others quickly added, “Yeaaaa it was very cold”, “…until Aziz vomited, masuk angin”, they said.

“And then we drank milk. Enak ye susunye?”, said Nanda.

“Yea.. it was.”, they answered.

This conversation about Kidzania goes on and on for about 40 minutes! Then I asked the teacher, “So all of you just took a trip to Kidzania? When? How fun!”

“No, kak, it was two years ago”, she answered. I was astonished. They talked with such vivid memories and feelings of wonder as if it was just happened yesterday. I thought to myself, that must be the happiest day of their lives.